Plane crashes in Switzerland, two feared dead: police

A private plane from Croatia crashed and caught fire while coming in to land near eastern Switzerland's chic St Moritz ski resort Sunday, with both people on board believed killed, police said.

"We think that the two people on board have died," Grisons canton police spokesman Sandro Pensa told AFP, without being able to identify them.

The plane, which had flown in from Zagreb, had been unable to land at the Samedan airport a first time, he said. It "made a wide curve to try a new approach, it probably hit a power line," Pensa said.

The aircraft crashed into a power station close to the village of Bever and immediately caught alight, he said.

Rescue services were mobilised to the scene and the fire was brought under control although power to nearby villages was out, he said.

Samedan is Europe's highest airport, at an altitude of 1,707 metres (just over 5,600 feet), and is often used by people going to St Moritz. In February 2009 two private planes crashed while trying to land at the same airport.